David Plouffe is, perhaps, the most brilliant organization person to have ever managed a campaign in Democratic Party history.

He knows what it takes to beat Rovian Republicans.

Our ground game this year is, in a word: sublime. Perhaps the very best piece I've seen on this appeared just over the past 48 hours, over at DKos: "Obama's Big Bet: The Power of the Ground Game."

As I indicated, ten days ago, in the first portion of my two-part "rant" about this situation-- "Provocative comments;  take those gloves off!" --the same cannot be said of our air game.

This post is the second-half of my "rant."

Not accounting for a few minutes running Senator Simon's Presidential effort years ago ('00), and then another short-lived gig for John Edwards in '04, the truth is that David Axelrod's resume is devoid of national media campaign experience; the guy's primarily a veteran of regional, state and municipal work. That's it!

Folks have made great hay about how clever Axelrod's been of late, quietly targeting a handful of swing-state markets for negative (but traditional) anti-McCain media.

The truth is, that he's embarking upon this proven/effective methodology quite late in the game, finally (for the first time) shifting course for Obama from his "beat-the-clock; hold-the-ball; can't-close-the-deal" brand of overly conservative campaign communications.  

This is fairly new turf for Axelrod. He's not used to national, gloves-off media.

For the GOP'ers, this is old hat.

The truth is, this year, that the Republicans, old dogs that they are, have some new tricks up their sleeves.

But, as usual, while some Dems are slapping themselves on the back for a moment, because we said a few bad things about McSame in a few markets over the last week or two--as long as we ignore the fact that Rove and Company have been slowly creeping up on Obama all Summer--the TRUTH is we are still VERY slow to catch on to the real deal...we may pick-up a few points, "quietly," in a few selective markets, finally engaging in a creative style that has not been in our comfort level in year's past (certainly not in Axelrod's sweet spot over the past year; and never nationally for him until now), but we're still playing "catch-up."

In recent cycles past, the Rethugs have learned how to obtain the most mileage possible from media creative strategies; these efforts have included a veritable spectrum of voter suppression and ethnic market segmentation methodologies that focus upon core ethnic prejudices and that also capitalize upon the basic social fears that arise from stereotypical misperceptions that still dominate our society today.

The problem here is that the folks working McCain's side of the media this cycle, under the guidance of Karl Rove, wrote (and continue to write) the book on this strategy, up until now deploying this subliminal and racial politics of fear  and voter suppression with laser-focus via robo-calling and direct mail.

The new game in town for Rove and the Rethugs in 2008, which the Dems will be reading about for the first time in coming weeks, is that these GOPer slime are now doing on TV what they've been doing in direct mail and via the phone over the past few cycles.

Rove and his band of ethically corrupt media hounds have transferred these ethnic segmentation media delivery tactics over to television, staying on top of the latest cable network/carrier-delivery strategies and technology, which now allows Rove & Co.  to exploit racial and similar voter prejudices and voter suppression opportunities via the latest cable delivery technologies on a house-by-house basis!

Yes, that Catholic-Polish family next door, whose kids never even met an African-American until they were well into their adolescence, are going to see McCain TV spots exploiting their innermost, stereotypical ethnic fears in between segments of reruns of Leave It To Beaver on the TV Land channel; all happening at the exact same moment you're seeing the same episode of the same show  delivered by the same cable network, but with a positive McCain spot about his military service delivered to your household, right next door, instead!

Think about the deviousness of this.

Never mind Rethug voter suppression and distorted robo-calling content. That's sooo last year.

This year, the Rethugs are taking this to a whole new level!

For 2008, it's Rethug voter suppression and subliminal motivation broadcast media delivered to your paranoid, conservative neighbor, next door, on the same cable channel, during the airing of the same program, at the same time you're watching a campaign commercial for McCain with completely different content on the same station!?!?

Regrettably--and here's the kicker--this has already been going on for months! And, most Democrats don't even know about it. It's downright subliminal media buying, aimed to go to the very core of a targeted voter's innermost, stereotypical and basic prejudices. And, it's happening right now on streets and neighborhoods throughout this country.

Remember this the next time you breathe a sigh of relief when you hear that Axelrod has finally decided to take the gloves off in a few markets with traditional, but negative, anti-McCain buys.

The GOP took the gloves off years ago, and they never put them back on.

In 2008, the Republican media gurus have lubed-up their fists and pushed their latest, mindbending media strategies so far up the voting public's ass that we don't feel a thing! ("This won't hurt a bit!")

The GOP'ers fingers are now playing us Dems via extremely sophisticated media delivery buys never before available--and still unknown to many 'pros'--and we're being played like a well-tuned piano! Like a cat with a ball of string, our political psyches are now being manipulated via communications strategies and broadcast delivery systems that most Dems don't yet even know exist.

Axelrod, can you hear me now?